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“Matt MacInnis, CEO of an interactive publishing company called Inkling, says “textbook” is too narrow a term for the new kind of learning content his company is developing. An alumnus of Apple’s international education division, MacInnis envisions traditional print textbooks being replaced by a new generation of media-rich learning platforms.

Inkling, which was born in 2009, takes existing textbooks (and their supplemental online content like animations and self-assessment quizzes), “gently disassembles” them, and then reassembles them for multitouch tablet devices like the iPad. For example, Inkling’s version of Hole’s Human Anatomy and Physiology features 400 interactive “exhibits” embedded in the text, including 3-D animations, anatomical diagrams where students can make the labels disappear and test themselves, and interactive quizzes that give instant feedback. Students can highlight passages with a finger swipe, swap ideas onscreen with friends on blue “sticky notes,” and read handy annotations, in purple, from their teachers.”